wfn.org | RELIGION POLL: PUBLIC WANTS GREATER MORAL,

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5-Jun-95

95183      RELIGION POLL: PUBLIC WANTS GREATER MORAL,  
                  ETHICAL LEADERSHIP FROM CLERGY 
 
           by George H. Gallup, Jr. and Robert Bezilla 
           Distributed by United Methodist News Service 
 
PRINCETON, N.J.--Americans continue to have little good to say about their 
institutions and leaders. And their clergy aren't doing that well either. 
 
     There was a time when members of the clergy were the most respected 
members of their community.  But factors such as the televangelist 
scandals, political forays by some highly visible clergy and moral lapses 
by others have taken their toll on the standing enjoyed by men and women of 
the cloth. 
 
     Currently, a slim majority of the public rates the honesty and ethical 
standards of the clergy as "very high" (14 percent) or "high" (40 percent). 
 
     But one person in three (34 percent) considers them only average, and 
one in 10 thinks they are low (9 percent) or very low (1 percent). 
 
     Until 1988 the clergy always had ranked first in comparison to a wide 
range of professions, but in that year and ever since they have been 
supplanted by pharmacists, and have had to be content with second place in 
the estimate of the public. 
 
     Clergy now are just slightly ahead of dentists, college teachers and 
engineers in the public's opinion.  (Way at the bottom of the list are 
senators, congressmen, insurance agents and car salesmen.) 
 
     A survey by the George H. Gallup International Institute last 
September found that only about one person in three (36 percent) believes 
religious leaders or the church have been doing a good job of raising the 
moral and ethical standards of the nation.  Half the populace (50 percent) 
think they have been doing just a fair job and 12 percent say their 
performance has been poor. 
 
     The potential for improvement is great in the estimate of the public, 
with two in three saying religious leaders could have a great deal of 
influence on raising the moral and ethical standards of the United States. 
An additional 27 percent think they could have some influence, and only 4 
percent believe their impact is potentially negligible. 
 
     The findings for both the Gallup Poll and the study by the George H. 
Gallup International Institute are based on telephone interviews with 
representative national samples of 1,007 adults conducted in September 
1994.  The margin of error could be 3 percentage points in either 
direction. 
 
 

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